Reuters: Intesa cannot syndicate the loan on the purchase of shares in Rosneft due to sanctions

TASS, 25 Aug. /TASS/. Italian Bank Intesa because of the American sanctions is not yet possible to syndicate a loan of €5.2 billion, issued by a consortium of Glencore and sovereign wealth Fund Qatar Investment Autority (QIA) for the purchase of 19.5% of “Rosneft”, reports Reuters with reference to sources.

“The syndication is impeded because of new U.S. sanctions against Russia. The new measures are quite large, they will impact on all such transactions with participation of Russian state companies”, – said the employee of a major Bank in London, invited to the syndicate.

Only Intesa invited in may, 15 banks to participate in the syndication of the loan. This process usually takes four to six weeks, in some cases, it may take a couple of weeks longer, the Agency said.

Banks, including credit institutions from USA and France, still assess the transaction for compliance with sanctions, sources say. In addition, difficulties caused diplomatic scandal around Qatar, which was under sanctions from a number of Arab States.

In Intesa refused to comment on the situation.

In March, the government of Italy in the final order approved the provision of banking group Intesa SanPaolo loan in the amount of €5.2 billion ($5.6 billion) to a consortium composed of trading companies Glencore and Qatar’s sovereign Fund QIA to purchase shares of “Rosneft”.

Rosneftegaz and a consortium of Glencore and QIA signed an agreement for the sale of 19.5% of Rosneft shares for 692 billion rubles, the Russian Budget received from privatization 710,8 billion rubles, including 18 billion rubles at the expense of additional dividends of “Rosneftegaz”, provided the changed dividend policy approved by the Board of Directors of “Rosneft” in the framework of the preparation for the privatization of the company.